Sweet Time
by Slayergirl
Summary: Set right at the end of The Parting of the Ways, ergo spoilers, mildly. Thing turn out differently: how I want them to. 1st fic of a series, but can be read as a standalone.


**Sweet Time**

The Doctor's explanations went into Rose's brain, but seemed to make no sense. "Wh-"

"It means I'm going to change."

"No, wait! How - how much time is there?"

"Time? Rose..."

"I remember," she said desperately, tears forming. "I remember how you saved me. You saved me by kissing me, right?" She didn't wait for an answer, but ploughed straight on. "Is there - is there time to - to kiss you good bye?"

He drew a deep breath. Time was running short, but she remembered, she wanted to kiss him... "If you're quick. And I'll have to keep my hand on the TARDIS, so don't..." His words were cut off as she pressed her lips desperately to his, tears streaming down her face. _If there are any Gods listening,_ he thought briefly, _please let them do something to ease her pain, because there's nothing more I can do._

Then the feelings seemed to change, and all he could think of was that she was kissing him, and he felt alive. Really alive, to the very tips of his fingers, which seemed to thrum with some sort of power. At first he thought it was just because Rose, his Rose, was kissing him - then he realised the thrumming came from under his hand.

The TARDIS was doing something to him.

He pulled back from the kiss in surprise, and Rose let go of him regretfully. "Guess this is goodbye, then," she half-choked, looking up at him.

He gasped. "Dear Gods..."

"What? What is it?"

"Can't you feel it?"

She looked perplexed. "Feel what?"

"Your eyes!" He shook his head, looking bleakly at the TARDIS. "What have you done?"

"But I haven't..."

"Not you," he said quietly. "Her."

"What do you mean?"

"You remember saving me? Looking into the TARDIS?"

"Kinda."

"You shone. Your eyes were like lanterns, beaming. Your whole body seemed to shine with the light of the vortex. They're doing it again now."

Rose frowned. "It doesn't hurt. Not like last time."

"What have you done?" he asked the TARDIS again, softly.

The TARDIS rumbled a quiet reply, and the Doctor's face looked as though it was undecided over whether to smile or frown. Rose gasped as he lifted his hand away from the TARDIS, not knowing what to expect. Nothing happened.

"What... exactly what..."

He smiled. "It seems that she's liked her bit of freedom, and is playing God again. Playing with the time vortex, and using me to channel some of the power into you so you can channel it back into me and heal me. Just as I saved you by kissing you, so you saved me."

"Oh." She couldn't think of anything else to say. "So, um..."

"She's also... changed you slightly."

"Changed me? I don't feel any different."

"Maybe not. But she has. She's hollowed out a little space in you and she's left some of the vortex in there."

"Why?"

"I think she should tell you that herself."

"But I don't understand her rumbles and creaks and groans like you do."

"Try. Ask her something. Ask her why she's done it. I think you'll understand if you concentrate, now she's inside you, not just in your mind, but in your body. Here," he said, laying her hands on the control panel.

She shrugged. "Fine. Okay. So... why did you do it?"

There was a series of creaks and groans, which, faintly she understood, at least in part. "Because we love him. Because I've seen your soul and you heart, and you've seen my heart. Because I love you."

Rose blinked. "Did I hear that right? The TARDIS just said she loved me?"

The Doctor grinned at her. "Yep. You heard right. She loves you enough to modify your genetic makeup so that there's a space in your body where a Gallifreyan's second heart would be, and she's deposited a little of her power there. In essence, Rose... the TARDIS has given you her heart."

Rose's eyes widened. "Wow..." Then she frowned. "So what does all this mean, exactly?"

The Doctor glided a hand over theconsole in what was almost a caress. "I think the repercussions of what she's done to you, well, we'll have to look into that a bit more, but though you're still human, there's an element of you that could pass for a mutant Gallifreyan." _Which could be handy in a number of ways, _he thought. _Who knows what Rules we might break, otherwise?_ "She knew what she was doing, though, I'm sure of that. She knew she couldn't heal me herself - against the Rules, for one thing, and it's too much power, for another, she'd simply have fried me. I think, though..." he frowned, as if trying to understand it himself. "Humans are weaker than Gallifreyans, much weaker than her. A little of her power can go a long way, and that's all she's given you, this time. Last time, it was desperate. This time, it's something she's done because she doesn't want you hurt. So she passed a little power through me, not enough even to hurt a dying Time Lord, but enough for a human to wield if the intention's right." He stopped, looking at Rose's confused face.

"Um, so... you don't have to regenerate, right?"

"No. Not this time. Thanks to you and the TARDIS." He smiled. "Women conspiring together."

She shook her head. "Not convinced I really understand all this."

He scratched his head thoughtfully. "No. Not sure I do, actually." He turned, and gave her a broad grin. "That's about as much sense as I can make of it. Your humanity turned that power into something that would stop this body from dying, rather than frying it even faster. And I'm glad of that. I'm not sure I was really ready to leave it."

She nodded slowly, accepting what he was saying as she usually did, in the end. "Good. I wasn't ready for you to leave it, either. Look, I'm gonna... lie down for a bit..."

Suddenly he was concerned again. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Just a bit... well, tired. Confused. First, the Daleks, ending the Time War, saving you, then... Oh my God! Jack! I brought him back to life, and we left him there!" she fairly shrieked.

The Doctor looked startled, then turned back to the control panel and reprogrammed the TARDIS. "Don't worry. We're on our way back for him."

She relaxed a little. "Good. So. Yeah. Bringing him back to life, and then this... regeneration, non-regeneration thing, and the TARDIS doing strange things to me, and... um, stuff." She sidled towards the passage, a faint flush on her face.

It would have been so easy to let her go, as he had done before, and avoided the subject. This time, he barred the way with his arm. "Stuff?"

"Stuff," she affirmed, eyes fixed on the floor.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Just stuff, stuff."

"You're avoiding the issue."

She crossed her arms like the sulky teenager she could be when she chose. "So are you."

"I'm not running away from it."

"You always have done."

"In the past, yes. It rather changes your outlook on things when a beautiful girl saves you twice in one day, and braves certain death, at least on the first occasion, to do it."

She found she couldn't quite meet his eyes. _Beautiful. He called me beautiful._ "You think I'm beautiful?"

"Silly little ape," he said cheerfully. "Of course I do. You are beautiful."

She flushed again, this time looking up at him. "Okay. So. The whole..." she lost courage. "Um."

"One of us has to say it, and if you won't, I suppose I'll have to. It - bothers you, doesn't it? Having kissed me."

"Sorta."

He swallowed hard, not knowing whether he wanted to know the answer to the next question or not. "In a good way or a bad way?"

She bit her lip. "I'm not sure."

His hearts sank. "Oh."

"I mean... it's just... not the way you'd imagine it happening, somehow. That's all. If, um, if you imagined it happening at all, of course, which, um... anyway. Yeah."

"So how would you imagine it happening, then? If, of course, you imagined it," he asked, a glimmer of hope twinkling in his eyes.

Rose gulped and backed away slightly. "Umm... well, I'm not sure, really, I... that is..." she stuttered.

The Doctor took a step towards her and cupped her face with one hand. "More like this, maybe?" he enquired with an almost innocent air as he bent to kiss her.

It was different. No pain dissipating, like the first kiss, no grief being outpoured and unspoken goodbyes, like the second. But a depth of feeling neither of them could ever have imagined. _Must remember to kiss Rose more often,_ thought the Doctor as she wound her arms tentatively around his neck, allowing him to gather her close.

They didn't even notice that they'd landed, that the TARDIS doors opened, until Jack's familiar, amused voice greeted them. "Well, you certainly took your sweet time!"


End file.
